Founded in 1781, Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, is one of the top college preparatory, or "prep" or "boarding," schools in the United States. With tuition and other fees just over $47,000 a year per student, it's also one of the most expensive.

Still, Phillips Exeter accepts only one applicant in six, which makes it more selective than all but the most exclusively selective colleges. And like the exclusively selective colleges, parents can't just buy their sons and daughters' way into the school. Though Exeter has educated generations of America's upper class, it has always made room for students who came from not-so-affluent families. Today almost 50 percent of its students receive financial aid without having to pay it back. Students whose families earn $75,000 or less annually are exempt from paying tuition.Exeter's endowment is more than $1.1 billion, which is larger than the endowments of most colleges. Having a student body of almost 1,100, it spends nearly $70,000 per student each year to operate the school, so what it doesn't get from paid tuition, it makes up for from the earnings of its endowment.Students who graduate from Exeter routinely matriculate to the best colleges in the world. Of the graduates from the classes of 2015 and 2016, 27 went to Harvard, 31 to Yale, 42 to Columbia, 25 to MIT, 18 to Princeton, 23 to Chicago and 15 to Stanford among other recognizably outstanding colleges. The pedagogical model Exeter uses in all classes is the Harkness Method, which is a method of student-centered learning. Rather than being arranged with rows of desks and a lectern, each classroom has an oval-shaped table with only enough spaces for a dozen students and the teacher. Classes at Exeter have been conducted in this way since 1930 when Edward S. Harkness, one of the richest men in the U.S. at the time, promised he would donate $5.84 million ($60 million in 2016 dollars) to the school if it would change its method of learning to one in which students and teachers in each class would sit around a table and work collaboratively. The oval-shaped tables the school adopted came to be called Harkness Tables in honor of the benefactor. Since then, the school as copyrighted the terms Harkness, Harkness Table and Harkness Method obviously for marketing.Others use the term collaborative learning table to describe the method, but no matter what it's called, wouldn't you like to have your children educated this way?To work and learn at a Harkness Table demands the students prepare for class discussions thoroughly, for if they don't, they will soon be found out by the other students at the table. The Harkness Method strongly encourages the students to take an active role in their learning, to listen carefully and work together. Every class at Exeter ― math, science, languages, history, literature, art and music ― is conducted around a Harkness Table. For almost 90 years, the Harkness Method has proven its worth at Phillips Exeter. Private and public schools in the U.S., schools in other parts of the world, and even colleges visit Exeter for the summer program devoted to Harkness learning. Many schools have implemented the Harkness Method in their curricula with good success. The Harkness Method works fine for students at a well-endowed private high school such as Phillips Exeter where the student-teacher ratio is one to 12, but is it too expensive to implement in any but a few public schools in affluent neighborhoods? The budgets for most public schools are severely constrained because it is never politically popular to spend money on public education. Thus the teacher-student ratio in most public school classrooms is 1 to 40 or more. Does this mean public education can only reach the high achievers ― who really don't need to be reached ― while stunting the potential of the rest of the students because the schools and society will not provide them quality educations for lack of money? More than a century ago the American scholar John Dewey observed that the best education for all children is the education the wisest parents want and get for their children. Children who are truly educated will not only take care of themselves, but will help make society better for all. This being so, every child should get the best education possible free of charge ― no matter the cost ― not for their sake alone but for the contribution they can make to society. If the most important duty of society is to educate all the children of the next generation to their full potential ― and why do anything less? ― it will be expensive. But consider the talent, ability and intellect the next generation would be able to bring to bear on the problems of the world if this were to happen. McLallen attended Orchard School and North Central High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is a copy editor with The Korea Times.